Cricket's Confusion Over Cheating

Tweet This

Australia's captain Steve Smith (R), flanked by teammate Cameron Bancroft, speaking during a press conference in Cape Town, on March 24, 2018 as he admitted to ball-tampering during the third Test against South Africa. ( STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Cricket's reputation has been battered and bruised during a turbulent 2018. It is a sport that has struggled with corruption and match-fixing over the years but subtle cheating has been ingrained for some time.

The practice of ball-tampering, which refers to the illegal manipulation of the ball to alter its condition and produce reverse swing, has long been a gray area and no one seems to quite know what the boundaries are.

It all hit a crescendo with the ugly ball-tampering scandal in March when Australian captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and culprit Cameron Bancroft were caught red-handed during the third Test against South Africa in Cape Town.

Umpires Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth confront Australia's Cameron Bancroft during day three of the third Test match between South Africa and Australia. (Photo by Peter Heeger/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

The scandal was literally front-page news for one-week straight in Australia and made headlines across the world in a low point for cricket. Amid a public backlash and angry sponsors, most notably Magellan Financial Group which terminated a three-year deal reportedly worth $20 million, Cricket Australia suspended Smith and Warner for 12 months, while Bancroft received nine months, for essentially bringing the game into disrepute.

However, especially for non-cricket fans, it was hard to grasp how such a scandal - and the subsequent hefty punishments from Cricket Australia - was deemed a fairly trivial misdemeanor by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Smith received a one-match suspension – the maximum penalty - and Bancroft was lightly slapped with three demerit points under the ICC’s then code-of-conduct, while Warner wasn’t charged.

After years of essentially turning a blind eye, the ICC unveiled tougher sanctions for ball-tampering during its annual conference in Dublin recently. Cricket’s governing body was belatedly forced to act after such a damaging period for the sport.

Cricketer Steve Smith reacts at a press conference at the airport in Sydney on March 29, 2018, after returning from South Africa. (PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)

In response to the calamity of Cape Town and the subsequent unrelenting public backlash, the ICC have increased the penalties for changing the condition of the ball and players face a suspension of up to six Tests or 12 One-Day Internationals among a raft of changes to its code of conduct.

With the ICC’s laws so meek and vague, it was little wonder so many players – not just the disgraced Australian trio - had been willing to go down that dark path and the scandal did not serve as a deterrent.

Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal recently served a one-match suspension – under the old laws - for a tampering offence after he was seen putting something in his mouth before shining the ball during a Test in the Caribbean. It wasn’t quite comparable to the Australian incident – which included the use of a foreign object (sandpaper), an inept execution of the tampering and an unwise cover up after the day’s play – but spoke of the ingrained disregard of the issue among cricketers.

Dinesh Chandimal (C) of Sri Lanka look at the ball in umpire Aleem Dar's hand while Shai Hope (L) and Devon Smith (2L) of West Indies watch during day 3 of the 2nd Test between West Indies and Sri Lanka. ( RANDY BROOKS/AFP/Getty Images)

Hopefully the ICC’s increased sanctions will now put to bed this mischief but that would disregard the ambiguity surrounding ball-tampering. What actually is ball-tampering and how does it differ to ball shining? After Cape Town, we can all acknowledge a foreign object is a no go but how about sweets and gum?

Ironically, South Africa captain Faf du Plessis – twice convicted of tampering – said it best on the eve of a Test series against Chandimal’s Sri Lanka. "The ICC has made the penalties a lot more strict but they still haven't said what is allowed and what isn't allowed,” he said. “Is chewing gum allowed? Is it not? Are you allowed mints in your mouth? For me, I need clarity still. I'm looking forward to speaking to the umpires before the game to make sure there's clarity.”

Furthermore, the ICC could do more to stamp out ball-tampering by investing in technology to catch perpetrators. Currently, host broadcasters essentially have to police the issue as shown in Cape Town when observant cameramen noticed something was awry. Eventually, television cameras captured Bancroft’s infamous act of putting the sandpaper down his pants but who knows how many instances of ball-tampering have been missed over the years.

Undoubtedly, the ICC has made a strong stance in ratcheting the penalties but there is obviously still confusion over what ball-tampering actually entails and that ambiguity could lead to more cheating scandals in the future.

I am an accredited cricket journalist in Australia and have covered the sport around the world. Most notably, I reported on the 2017-18 Ashes – cricket’s greatest series - from the press box and have experience in breaking news, features writing and opinion. I have written ...